Common Enemy: Why Israel is Embracing Fascism in Europe

Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, visited Israel on July 19, where he met
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other
officials. Orban’s visit would have not required much
pause except that the Hungarian leader has been repeatedly
branded for his often racist,
anti-Semitic remarks.

So why is Orban wining and dining
with the leaders of the so-called ‘Jewish State’?

The answer does not
pertain only to Orban and Hungary, but to Israel’s attitude towards the rapidly growing
far-right movements in Europe, as a whole. Netanyahu and
Zionist leaders everywhere, are not just aware of this
massive political shift in European politics but are, in
fact, working diligently to utilize it in Israel’s
favor.

On his visit to Israel, Orban asserted that
Hungarian Jewish citizens should feel safe in his country,
an odd statement considering that it was Orban and his party
that deprived many Jews and other members of
minority groups of any feeling of safety.

Still, Netanyahu
has welcomed Orban as a “true friend of Israel” and
Orban called on his European counterparts to
show more support for Israel. Mission
accomplished.

Netanyahu had visited Budapest in July 2017, but that
supposedly ‘historic’ visit did nothing to change
Hungary’s official discourse, dotted with racism and
anti-Semitism. In fact, in March 2018, Orban derided Jews,
focusing his criticism mostly on Jewish
financiers such as George Soros.

At an election rally
campaign, Orban said, “We are fighting an enemy
that is different from us. Not open but hiding; not
straightforward but crafty; not honest but base; not
national but international; does not believe in working but
speculates with money; does not have its own homeland but
feels it owns the whole world.”

It is well-known that
Israel and Zionist leaders are quite selective in
manipulating the definition of ‘anti-Semitism’ to serve
their political agendas, but Israel’s attitude towards the
racist far-right movements in Europe takes this truth to a
whole new level.

Indeed, the ‘special relationship’
between Netanyahu and Orban is only the tip of the iceberg. For years,
Netanyahu’s Israel has been ‘flirting’ with radical
right movements in Europe.

The unmistakable Israeli
strategy, of course has its own logic. Israeli leaders feel
that Europe’s move to the far-right is irrevocable and are
keen to benefit from the anti-Muslim sentiment that
accompanies this shift as much as possible.

Moreover, the
EU’s resolve to label illegal settlement products and
refusal to heed calls for moving their embassies from Tel
Aviv to Jerusalem is pushing Netanyahu to explore these new
routes.

During his previous visit to Hungary, Israeli
Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, met with leaders from
the so-called Visegrad-4, which includes Hungary, Poland,
the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

On that visit, Netanyahu
hoped to find new channels of support within the EU, through
exerting pressure by using his new-found allies in these
countries. In an audio-recording obtained by Reuters,
Netanyahu chastised Europe for daring to criticize
Israel’s dismal human rights record, illegal settlement
policies and military occupation.

“I think Europe has to
decide whether it wants to live and thrive or it wants to
shrivel and disappear,” he said.

Netanyahu’s arrogance is
unbridled, especially as the censure is emanating from a
leader who represents an ethno-nationalist state, which has
just recently canceled any reference to ‘democracy’ in
its newly-issued Jewish Nation-state Law.

The new ‘basic
law’ defines Israel by an ethnic identity, not any
democratic values. Netanyahu is now closer to Europe’s
far-right racist groups than to any liberal democratic
model, thus the ongoing flirting between Israel and these
groups.

In fact, the term 'flirting' is itself an
understatement considering that Israel's ties with various
far-right, neo-Nazi and fascist parties in Europe involve
high-level political coordination and, in the case of the
Ukraine in particular, the actual supplying of
weapons.

The
Israeli-far-right embrace almost touches every single
European country, including Italy and Germany, whose history
of Nazism and Fascism has wrought death and misery to
millions.

In Italy, the connection between Italian
far-right parties and Israel goes back to the early 2000s,
when post-Fascist leader, Gianfranco Fini, labored to
rebrand his movement.

Initially, Fini was the leader of
the Movimento Sociale Italiano (Italian Social
Movement), which saw itself as the “heir to the
Fascist Party”.

The rebranding of the party required
a trip by Fini to Israel in 2003, after
changing the name of his movement to the ‘National
Alliance.’ Interestingly, in his highly-touted visit, Fini
was accompanied by Amos Luzzatto, the head of the Italian
Jewish community.

Unsurprisingly, far-right leader, Matteo
Salvini, Italy’s current Interior Minister, went through
the same political baptism by Zionist Israel - as Orban and
Fini also did - by paying a visit to Tel Aviv in March 2016 to
launch his political career and declaring his undying love for the Jewish State.

The
same scenario is being repeated in Germany where the
far-right party - Alternative for Germany (AfD) - has
risen in ranks to the point that it nearly toppled a
government coalition led by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

AfD
has more in common with Israel than the common anti-Muslim
and anti-immigrant views. The party which is “derided for
anti-Semitic, xenophobic views redolent of the Nazis is also
staunchly supportive of Israel,” reported the Times of Israel.

Last
April, the anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic German party,
enthusiastically began a campaign pushing for the recognition of
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, despite Merkel’s views to
the contrary.

The story, however, does not end there. What
began as Israeli flirting with far-right racist movements is
now Israel’s official policy towards Europe. The same
story, with different actors and names can be found in
Austria’s Freedom Party (FPOe), Belgium’s Vlaams Belang
(Flemish Interest) and virtually everywhere else.

It
remains to be seen how Israel’s embrace of fascist Europe
will bode, both for Israel and the European Union. Will the
EU “shrivel and disappear”, or will Israel be finally
exposed for what it truly is, an ethno-nationalist state
with no interest in true democracy in the first
place?

- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and
editor of Palestine Chronicle. His latest book is ‘The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story’
(Pluto Press, London). Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine
Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident
Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International
Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. His website
is www.ramzybaroud.net.

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